Porcelain Pipes

[oystermouth]

I've just got a box load of these dating back to before WWI, however I know absolutely nothing about porcelain pipes. Is there anyone here who can point me in the right direction?
Edit: Corrected capitalization in title, L.

 

[dhintonca]

I've a little experience with them, and there's several threads on them. What would you like to know?

 

[joshwolftree]

Pictures help with pipe knowledge :D

 

[strugglingthinker]

I have one that inherited from a relative. It's a double-walled pipe, half bent -- sort of like a calabash, but the top doesn't come off or anything. I am afraid to smoke it. The glaze over the porcelain has cracked all over the bowl, although that doesn't appear to have effected the pipe otherwise. I'm afraid that the thing would get BLAZING hot. I have so many other pipes that I like and use, so I just kind of keep this one as an ornamental/decorative object on the mantle. I'd appreciate any tips from those of you who have one like that.

 

[dhintonca]

check out http://www.lepeltier-pipes.com/index.html

 

[sparroa]

I don't know where to direct you but I can give you the gist of what I have read lately about them.
Porcelain pipes have been around since the 1700s when clay was the only other widespread alternative.
They are similar to clays but are larger and often made just as bowls to fit into wooden stems.
They are typically very ornate and hand painted with great detail. Many of them include decorated wind caps.
"The standard shaped porcelain pipes come principally from the Royal Goedewaagen factory in Gouda, the Netherlands, and are offered in a variety of artistic finishes, ranging from pure white to a stain resembling the reddish-brown of a well-seasoned meerschaum. This factory also makes the famous Baronite pipe, which is a double-walled porcelain pipe. One of the major disadvantages of porcelain pipes, as with clays, is that they become extremely hot, making them difficult to hold. The air space between the inner and outer bowl walls of the notable Baronite acts as an insulator, keeping the bowl cooler and more comfortable in the hand. The air space also increases the dryness of the smoke, an effect also found in the calabash gourd pipe."
Finally, the best copies of antique porcelain pipes came from German and Yugoslavian factories in years past. (Though they are now probably just as hard to find as the originals!)
I hope that helps to some degree...
*The above was summarized and/or quoted from 'The Book of Pipes & Tobacco' by Carl Ehwa Jr. (1974)
I consulted two other notable pipe books but they scarcely mentioned porcelain pipes, let alone provide much information about them.
Some repeated points were: popular in Central Europe, heyday in the 19th century, mostly ornamental...
I have a feeling that porcelain pipes were made very unpopular by meerschaum and absolutely wiped out by briar as the 19th century progressed.
If nobody else has any answers for you, then Google is going to have to be your best friend...

 

[oystermouth]

Many thanks for all the replies and my apologies for not answering sooner I was unaware that any answers had been posted!

 

[lazydog]

I believe many use a porcelain pipes to test new tobacco since it can be cleaned thoroughly between smokes (????).

 

[jbbaldwin]

Royal Copenhagen made some porcelain pipes:

There are a couple listed on Bisgaard if you're interested. It's from RC's standard, classic, blue-and-white pattern:

Not sure how the pipe would smoke, but I'd like to have it.

 

[john218]

I had one years ago made by Royal Goedewaagen. It was an apple shape with a double wall and had a windmall painted on it in Delft blue. It was as hot smoking as a clay pipe, even with the double bowl. The white portion at the bottom of the bowl near the junction with the stem turned brown, even though I rarely smoked it.
Eventually it broke and I threw it away. I never really enjoyed smoking it.
The other style that is quite common is the Bavarian pipe. It usually has a cherrywood stem, a wind cap and ornate decorations on the bowl. Many of these pipes commemorate a military unit or some other organization.
I have never heard anybody praising the smoking qualities of porcelain pipes.

 

[bigvan]

"I believe many use a porcelain pipes to test new tobacco since it can be cleaned thoroughly between smokes"
I've heard this too. But in 25 years of smoking a pipe and after attending dozens of pipe shows, I've NEVER seen ANYONE actually smoking a porcelain pipe.
If I had one, I'd probably put it on a shelf and admire it but I doubt I'd ever smoke it. I guess I just like briar too much.

 

[john218]

I have never heard of porcelain pipes being used to test blends, but I have heard of clay pipes being used.

 

[stosho]

I also recently acquired a baronite pipe. I am new to the whole pipe collecting and smoking scene but I have become a bit compulsive about finding the estate pipes. This is my first post on your site but I have been learning a ton over the past several weeks reading these posts.
The Baronite actually has a bowl that is formed in a twisted style. It looks sharp and fits the hand perfectly. In the same lot I found a small meerschaum without a stem. Is there a source out there that provides replacement stems?

 

[cortezattic]

Welcome to the forums, Stosho! :clap:

Check your private messages (right hand column, Forum home page).

 

[mso489]

Porcelain and clay for that matter illustrate why discovering the utility of briar in tobacco pipes was a major advance.

What an step up from gingerly handling a pipe by its stem to avoid burning your fingers to wrapping your hand

around a comfortably warm briar to read a book or watch the weather. Porcelain is quite pretty but would be like

smoking in a tea cup.

 

[iwbiek]

hi everybody. first post for me.
i do have a souvenir porcelain bavarian-style pipe from slovakia with a painting of a wild boar on it that a friend gave me. supposedly it's supposed to be decorative, but if a pipe can be smoked, you can bet i will smoke it at least once! the bowl does indeed get hot, and the flavor of the tobacco lacks a certain richness i get from briar or meerschaum...i can only describe it as "thin."
however, i do have a curious old clay pipe, short, stumpy, and very thick and heavy--sort of the old elizabethan style but with a bigger bowl--and i will sing its praises to kingdom come! because of the thickness of the walls, the bowl never gets unbearably hot in the hand, and i find it the absolute best pipe for the acrid, latakia-rich english blends i like to smoke. i always make a mental note of which pubs tolerate my smoking it! i never clean it except for a reaming with a wire whenever it gets clogged, and i've truly discovered just what mark twain was talking about in "roughing it" when he extolled the pleasures of a good, rank, filthy pipe!
i have some pretty expensive, quality briars and one damn good, solid meerschaum of uncertain provenance that i paid 80 pounds for in london years ago (worth every penny), but i keep going back to this estate clay i bought on ebay for less than 20 bucks. i always keep it in my backpack, wrapped carefully in bubble-wrap and placed inside an old aluminum hardshell oakleys sunglasses case.
so, long story short, if you're lucky enough to find a good clay (i've owned a couple others, less than stellar), it's worth its weight in gold (or top-quality meerschaum)!

 

[auslander]

iwbiek, pictures man, pics!! Imagination is so yesterday.

 

[cigrmaster]

iwbiek, welcome to the site. Pics would be good, we love looking at pipes here at PM.

 

[iwbiek]

ok, so here's the porcelain souvenir pipe, with another shot of the bowl so you can see the boar.

and here's my wonderful clay. notice the thickness of the bowl and the deep teeth marks on the stem (the clay is actually quite soft, i have to be careful with it).

 

[auslander]

Thanks for the pics,
A Porcelain Gesteckpfeife they are pretty common over here in both knock off form and antique originals. I've wondered how they would smoke. A pain to clean I'd imagine. There are briar (bruyere) versions as well as other woods.
The clay pipe looks well loved, not sure if that'd be my cup of tea though.